The Verge of Tomorrow
by Clemens Chua
Summary: What happens after Major William Cage smiles at Rita Vrataski, and the movie ends? This story is about a possible ending, the growing romance between Cage and Vrataski, more action and adventure, and don't forget more mimics, more friends and more machines. I hope you enjoy my work, I'd be posting more in the future! Rated M for sexy time. (Work in Progress)
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: This story is about the immediate events after the end of the movie, which i watched many times over and loved every part of it. I hope you enjoy my story! :) I might be adding new characters and new technologies as the story progresses, so do bear with me, it gets more interesting.**

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"Yes? What do you want?"

Rita Vrataski leapt up from her position on the floor of the training room, her face a mask of soothing anger. Her eyes burned into the very soul of Major William Cage, but Cage ignored it. After all, it was only the thousandth time he had seen her and heard her say that. However, this time, it was all very different.

A smile broke out on Cage's face, widening as he took in the sight of a sweaty Rita Vrataski. Unable to contain his laughter, he chuckled once, whispering, "Come with me." Cage and Vrataski walked past the soldiers in the preparation hall, where the soldiers fitted on their jackets, ever so brilliantly designed by the top scientists in the International United Defence Force, IUDF for short.

Vrataski caught up to Cage, matching his stride. "What did you call me out for? Major, I do not enjoy being disrupted during my training. Tell me what you need to tell me, and I will be on my way." Vrataski said in a calm tone, which contradicted her fiery expression on her face. "Walk faster then, we require to be alone before i tell you the details." Cage did not care to elaborate, for he already had done so one too many times. "Just follow me to my quarters, I require of your presence there." Saying no more, they had reached the end of the row of barracks and proceeded onwards to Cage's sleeping quarters.

Cage pressed his thumbprint into the biometric scanner and ushered Vrataski in. Ensuring that no one had followed them or seen then enter his quarters, he shut the door. Vrataski stood, hands akimbo, and demanded to know what was going on. "Your middle name is rose." Cage stated simply, and matter-of-factly."Wh-what?" Vrataski stopped mid-sentence and started to stutter. "I-i've never told anyone before! Unless…" Her eyes widened at the revelation, and she looked at Cage directly in the eye. "So you have the power? How did you get it? That power surge the General talked about, was that you in Paris?" A flurry of questions came from Vrataski, which Cage tried to answer.

"Yes, i do have it. I killed an alpha with an explosive, and i died on the battlefield. We worked together to find the Omega which was in Paris, and we killed it together. Before I died underwater, i was covered by the Omega's blood, so i guess i have its power now." Cage explained. "It wasn't easy, and I had lost the power by then, so we had to finish the job without dying. Luckily and ironically, i was saved by the same thing i had to kill."

Vrataski sat on his bed, trying to soak in the information. "So… you still have the power? That means you can technically die and still reset? That's amazing! Imagine the practical uses for that! You could win lotteries forever!" she said, with a little glint in her eyes that Cage ever so liked. She sat there, contemplating the ideas that flew through her head, each presenting itself with wonders. Cage stood there, taking in the sight of the "Angel of Verdun" or the "Full Metal Bitch", called behind her back. She was beautiful, with her dirty blonde hair, her pristine face devoid of any imperfection whatsoever, and her slender hips as she sat upright. Cage smiled, for the girl of his dreams was right in front of him.

"What are you smiling at?" Vrataski stood, glaring at him. Surely he must have stared too long at her! Cage looked away, embarrassed at his lack of self-control. Vrataski excused herself from his quarters, promising that they would meet at lunch, leaving Cage staring at the closed door, hoping she would come back. 10 minutes after Vrataski left, when it was evident that she was not coming back, Cage gathered himself with a sigh, and left his quarters to go around his daily checks and meetings. With the war won and the mimics dead, there were a lot of public relations to deal with, and the massive continent-wide cleanup of dead mimic carcasses, which they soon learnt would dissolve into an extremely potent and acidic substance not of Earth origin.

It was 10 00 hours as he strode into the meeting room that was already half-filed, and was soon to be full. The meeting started at 10 05, with boring statistics of casualties and the plans of cleaning up. Scientists were already devising chemicals to neutralise the acidic substance of the mimics, which they started calling decass, a mixture of the words decay and carcass. Cage slowly dozed off but was rudely awakened by his name being called. "Major William Cage! I asked you a question: How are we to respond to the public? Right now we have journalists clambering for our attention - and we have no one to speak to them as we are all busy! Quickly, formulate something to give them and I'd tell the logistics to hold a press conference at 12 00 hours." General Brigham said, and with that, the meeting was adjourned.

Cage sighed, it was already 11 00 hours, and he only had an hour to come up with something. Furthermore, he would probably miss lunch as the journalists, like hungry dogs, would lap up at any information he gave and spit out questions for him to answer. He hurried over to his quarters yet again, trying to think up of answers to questions the journalists would ask.

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3 hours later, what seemed like a million questions, and a splitting headache, Cage stumbled out of the press conference, disorientated as hell due to the flashes from the damn cameras. He strode over to the mess hall, where he would finally eat his lunch and possibly find Vrataski. Alas, to his chagrin, Vrataski was nowhere to be found. He ate in silence, watching soldiers walk in and out of the mess hall, laughing and eating their food with joy. For Cage, it was a quick lunch, and he walked out of the mess hall and into another meeting.

This time, it was an urgent meeting for the scientists had discovered something - the acidic substance that the mimic carcasses dissolved into, decass, could be neutralised using calcium hydroxide, an alkaline substance that was already ordered to be put into mass production. Gallons of calcium hydroxide were already being airlifted through the dropships that had once carried men in jacket technology, covering vast battlefields were flora and fauna were being eaten away by the highly corrosive acid, an ironic image of the mimics' last parting gift to mankind.

However, the scientists had discovered something as well. When the battlefield near Paris was cleared with the calcium hydroxide, expedition teams were sent into the Louvre, where the Omega was located during the War. What they found was the remains of the Omega, blown apart by the grenade belt Cage has dropped into the Omega, and thankfully no Omega blood was found, seemingly evaporated into thin air.

Cage heaved a sigh of relief, causing a bunch of irritated faces to stare at him while the head of the research team was presenting their findings. Cage muttered his apologies as he wished he would get out of the meeting as soon as possible. Suddenly, a base-wide alarm sounded, with a high pitch whine. The head of the research team stopped the presentation, looking puzzled, as General Brigham stood up slowly, saying to no one in particular. "Oh, my god. It's a code red." The officers and majors ran out of the meeting room and out of the building, joined by the thousands of marines in the base, as they gazed upon the three meteors flying across the sky and crashing into the ground.

Cage stared in disbelief, for the meteors were flying in formation, and the only time that had happened was… "When the mimics landed", Cage said aloud, as a realization dawned upon him. The mimics were back.

And they were back to finish the job.

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 **Author's note: So how did you like the story so far? Is it suspenseful? Did it have an interesting touch to it, or was it unbearably mundane? Please help me improve by reviewing and commenting on my style of writing and plot. Thanks and see you in the next chapter.**

 **Update: So I received a review from a guest, talking about the chemical reaction between the acidic material left behind by the mimic's decaying body (Which I made up) and the usage of ethanol, a chemical that isn't alkaline or basic in nature, to neutralise/react the acidic compounds to form something harmless and water. I would like to clear up that when I wrote this chapter, I didn't bring in any actual scientific concepts, since I was writing fanfictions as a way of destressing from studying for my finals. What's the use of using chemical concepts in something that I'm doing to take my mind of chemistry? However, I do see how the guest is coming from. Having that said, I have decided to update my existing chapters and write the rest of the chapters much more accurately in terms of both writing and scientifically, since I'm going to venture into mimic biology. Also, I might use terms that I do not fully understand, and that's why I need you, the reader, to leave your reviews/comments and help me spot them out. (Don't get me wrong, I do** proof read **my writing. I don't usually have the time, but I do my best.)**

 **That's all i wanted to talk about, I hope I clear up the misunderstandings and my wrongdoings. I hope you continue to enjoy the many stories and chapters I will continue to post, and always, have a nice day. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: Behold! Chapter 2 has arrived. I hope you enjoyed the previous one, because this is better. I managed to touch up on parts of my writing style and am thinking of adding new characters and technology soon. I hope you enjoy chapter 2! :)**

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Cage stared at the open sky as the streaks of meteors flew past Heathrow Air Base, the forward operation base in Operation Downfall. The three meteors, flying in formation of a triangle, crashed into the earth, a booming sound that echoed around the land for miles, followed by two other ear-splitting sounds as the meteors landed on Earth. For a moment, the entire air base held its breath - in shock and surprise, in the return of the mimics. The defining silence was broken a moment later by a chorus of anger, disbelief and panic. However, panic was the most prevalent in the air base - obvious through the ripple of panic spreading through the ranks of the men standing in awe of the sights to behold. Someone had turned the siren off - the base had descended into its eerie silence yet again, as the men looked up in the sky, staring at the smoky trails of the meteors. Suddenly, as if a spell had broken over them, the men started rushing about as the officers around Cage barked out orders and called their superiors at the IUDF.

A different siren played - it was a code blue. That meant every single soldier on duty had to haul ass to the nearest hanger and get outfitted with their jackets. The engineers dropped their tools and sped over to the dropships, while pilots scrambled to get their helmets. The next twenty minutes passed in a flurry of activity, as the dropships took off in formation to the different crash sites, creatively named site A, B and requested to be airlifted with the team for site A, and had that request immediately rejected. "This is not a job for a public relations officer, Major Cage. I recommend you stay back as our team relays essential information for you to talk to the press. I'm sure the press will be very curious as to what is happening." General Brigham replied.

Cage signed - he forgot that General Brigham's impression of him was a cowardly man who had risen up the ranks only through the fact that no one else wanted to be in the public relations sector. The other General Brigham in his previous loop, instead, had the impression of a formidable warrior who helped the invasion force to win the mimic war. He glanced over at the strike teams, and there she was, the Angel of Verdun - Rita Vrataski. She stood with her elite squad, men she had personally picked and trained in every single way possible - fighting skills, aiming, patience and all that good battlefield senses. Their sign of an elite squad was the skull on their visors - normal soldiers had a clear visor, while the elite team had their black but translucent, with a skull and crossbones over it. How they managed to look through the design? No one ever knew.

However, the one who did strike out the most was the "Full Metal Bitch". With her red slashes of paint on her armour, riddled with bullets from friendly fire, gashed with claws (is that what they call it?) of mimics, for she had bested thousands of them in hand to hand combat, with her trusty sword. The sword had a biometric scanner, meaning that only she could pick it up with her hands. It was extremely lightweight, being fashioned from the finest blacksmith using titanium-magnesium alloy, leading to it's extremely light yet hard property. And that was just how Vrataski liked it, bashing every mimic in the face with her good ol' trusty sword. Vrataski had picked up hundreds of mimic kills in her current life. In total? Too many to count. She could have easily racked up millions of kills, from the practice she had when she still had the power.

"Major Cage! What are you standing there for? Get a move on, the press is demanding a reason for the uproar!" An official that was present at meetings but Cage never took note of was yelling at Cage. "Yea okay fine i'd move it" Cage mumbled under his breath, slightly pissed that he couldn't fight alongside Vrataski in the possible battle. Meanwhile, news on the mimics were already spreading across the net and television. The first wave of soldiers had to do some crowd controlling as the public and reporters swarmed the three crash sites, each about a kilometre from each other.

And then it happened.

With a loud crashing sound, all synchronised as if a giant mind was controlling all of them, (which of course was technically how it worked), the ground started sinking inwards, creating three giant sinkholes in the field it had crashed into. The soldiers on screen immediately stepped backwards, shouting to each other and to the onlookers to get the hell back. And as suddenly as it happened, the ground stopped moving. The earth was shaking, as if mother nature was waking up. Cage could feel the tremors from miles away from the base, and from the ground poured forth waves of mimics.

The soldiers instantly snapped into their battle stances, gunning mimics down as soon as they came out of the hole. Mimic bodies were thrown into the air as more and more mimics gushed out of the sinkholes as if a tap had been turned on. Mimic carcasses were thrown into the air, as mimics rose up from the sinkhole. The nearest onlookers died almost instantly, with the mimics able to shoot spikes from their backs. The soldiers closed ranks, some screaming, some gritting their teeth as they gunned down the mimics. Cage stood with fixated horror as he stared at the television in his quarters - how could this be? Did he not kill the omega? Why are there more mimics out there? Then it dawned on him when he remember something Dr Carter, one of the scientists that Vrataski said he could trust, had said. He hypothesised that there was not one omega, but there could be millions of them out there, on asteroids, just waiting to crash into a habitable planet, wait for the dominant species to attack, and boom. Total annihilation.

Cage rushed over to the hangers, called over a engineer to help me put his jacket on. The engineer was surprised, but overcame it quickly with a smile and asked Cage "What was it? Was't done with your girl? Too busy over the mags?" Cage did not reply, he just gave the engineer a cold look that made him shut up. Once suited up and with enough ammo, he got into a dropship and set a course for site A.

A while later, he could see the field was still swarming with mimics, and the public was nowhere to be seen. With the dwindling amount of soldiers and the unrelentless stream of mimics being poured out of the sinkholes, the soldiers of IUDF were dying quickly. Too quickly. Cage dropped out of the dropship, letting it crash and cover a sinkhole. It soon exploded, taking a few mimics out and burying the sinkhole for just a few minutes. Cage dropped on the back of a mimic, and before the mimic could react, he shot a single bullet into its head, a technique he realised was very effective he one could get behind a mimic. He used it very often, as mimics early turned their backs, or you usually get killed before you can get behind one.

Soldiers looked up in awe as their public relations officer smashed his way through ranks of mimics, killing them with single shots to the head, crushing their tendrils as he walked over them, using his heavy guns from the back of his jacket to shoot high velocity balls of plasma at the mimics, effectively tearing through the chitinous armour as though as it was paper. Adrenaline surged through Cage's veins as he tore into a mimic just by activating the jets on his boots and smashing through the body feet first. The blood of mimics sprayed over the battlefield, as bodies of mimics shuddered multiple times, almost convulsing, as they breathed their last on the putrid battlefield.

However, a single man against an army wasn't enough. For every mimic Cage killed, two replaced it. It was not long before the order to retreat sounded along the ranks of the soldiers, and as battle hungry Cage was, he knew better to continue fighting and be ultimately overwhelmed by the mimic horde. He pulled back along with the soldiers, the mimics lapping at their heels like hungry dogs. The soldiers, combined with the jackets, were able to run fast, but the mimics were faster. The mimics took down stragglers, as the screams of the dying echoed into the day.

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"What the living hell was that?"

"Holy shit man did you see the way that mimic came out at me?"

"Oh god. Oh god. Oh god."

"Damn we were getting royally screwed in the ass till that PR guy came along. Who knew he could fight? Always thought he was some lowly coward."

The voices of soldiers were loud and stinging to Cage's ears, as the survivors took off their jackets in the hangers. The military base was on maximum lockdown and the defence perimeter was primed - they would know if mimics were coming. A line of soldiers still guarded the perimeter, serving as the first line of defence should the mimics decide to advance towards the base. As the soldiers filed in for debriefing, Cage was called by General Brigham to his office, and Cage knew he was really screwed.

"You weren't supposed to be in combat! No one ordered you to be there! You were supposed to deal with the press! Now i have additional work to do to cover for you, on top of the damn bullshit of the mimics coming back!" General Brigham roared. Cage did nothing, not even blink, as General Brigham paced his office, thinking of solutions to the current situation. "Look, I need you to obey us, your superiors, or the entire hierarchy would crumble." Brigham started. "I'm going to let you off the hook for once since i have too much on my hands, and you did a pretty good job out there. Next time, ask for permission. Do not jump straight into combat like that." Cage nodded, and with that, was dismissed by Brigham.

Cage left the office to see Vrataski pacing outside. "Rita? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be preparing or something?" Cage was surprised by her suddenly appearance. "Look, you went crazy out there. Must have killed at least a hundred mimics with your bare hands. Next time, invite me to the party. I was too busy following orders." Vrataski talked with a friendly tone, but her eyes portrayed a different message. She wanted him to be more careful, should an alpha appear or should he be injured, therefore loosing the power. Cage smiled, saying "It's all good. I got this." At that moment, Cage's phone rang. He answered it, and snapped it shut a moment later. "We're required in the meeting room, we better hurry." Cage met Vrataski's eyes, and quickly hurried to the meeting room.

"We have been attacked by three waves of mimics - there were three meteors just like the first meteor that landed in Europe, starting the war. Firstly, we need our intel. Satellite imaging that was still intact from the war shows that the mimics has not advanced beyond the field, and we have successfully evacuated all civilians in a 10 mile radius." An officer was presenting, probably an intelligence gathering team. "We currently do not know their purpose, butt hey seem to be protecting those three sinkholes that were created just before combat. Do we have any ideas on what they could be protecting, and how can we end this?"

Cage stayed quiet, understanding that if he spoke up now, he would probably end in a psych ward or be dissected. "Does anyone have ideas?" The officer spoke up again, as the room descended into silence, each man contemplating what could the aliens truly be after on earth. "I have an idea." All eyes suddenly turned towards him, eighteen sets of eyes turned upon Cage. "I have a theory, that the mimics are like minions. They are controlled by a higher up organism, something like a biological hierarchy. This higher up organism, let's call it… the omega, has too many mimics to control, so it has other minions, but more powerful and between the drone mimic and the omega in terms of rank… So this special minion, let's call it the alphas, controls a group of drones, the basic mimics we see on the battlefield." Cage allowed his brain to say everything, but putting it in a way that it was a theory and not something that was true.

"So your theory is that there's the drones, the basic mimics, then the alphas, who control the drones, and the omega, who controls everything? So that means the three sinkholes mean… oh my god. Does that mean it could be three omegas? Doesn't that mean they are three separate factions, like different legions?" An officer twirled his pen and casually said. "Wait, we are just accepting this theory? A scientist piped up, his pen in the air. Cage looked at him in the eye and growled "Do you have a better idea?" The scientist looked as if he wanted to come up with a story, but decided against it. He lowered his pen in defeat, and nodded along.

"So, that leaves us with the question: What do the mimics want?"

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 **Author's note: So i added a little fight scene in there, had a little fun depicting mimic biology. I'd probably be thinking up of more ideas for mimic biology, jacket classification, and maybe new vehicles. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: Sorry for the long delay in between chapter 2 and this chapter! I've been busy studying for my finals. Anyway, here it is! As promised, it includes new technology. Enjoy reading!**

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"Beep!" The sound came from the head of the research team. He held up his phone, and smiled widely. "Well, it's a timely arrival. Gentlemen, we have completed our upgrades for the jacket technology. If you would all follow me to the engineering bay?" General Brigham stood, and announced that they would adjourn again at night, and a message would be sent to their phones. The men walked briskly to the engineering bay, where the advances in technology were made. "Behold! The jacket MKII!" The head of the research team exclaimed as the research team revealed the suit in a rather exaggerated way. "This upgraded jacket takes everything that the older one has, and makes it better. For example, the jacket MKII has thrice as many magazine storages, and half the reload time. The new Cobra guns boasts a new targeting system that can be accessed through the helmet display, and has much less recoil. It is able to shoot high caliber bullets that can punch through mimic exoskeleton and take them down easily." The officers marvelled at the new jacket, while Cage had his mind elsewhere, thinking about the mimic invasion and what they might have wanted.

"In addition to the weapons, the new jacket now boosts the speed of the soldier, making him run up to 30 miles an hour. The soldier will be able to jump to impressive heights to three metres, thanks to the more efficient and better fuel used in the power boots. Other than that, minor additions such as better turning capabilities are enhanced." The head of the research team finished, sitting back in his chair as the officers crowded around him and the new jacket. "The question is, how many of these," An officer gestured to the jacket, "We can pump out for the entire battalion. What if the mimics attack tomorrow? We will have limited time to manufacture the jackets in time to defend against the mimics. Also, we need to contain them. The mimics might decide to attack civilians, and we need to protect them."

The head of the research team cocked his head, in deep thought. "We have two factories that are ready to start the manufacture of the jackets. The rate that we pump out these jackets should be around 20 an hour. Thats about 500 jackets a day, since the factories are robotic and not manpowered. The only things that we need are your approval," He nodded at General Brigham, who immediately answered with a yes, "and the funds to manufacture the jackets." He looked at General Brigham, who sighed and replied, "I will contact HQ and request for the funds. In the meantime, contact the engineers to start programming the factories." The head of the research team nodded, pulled out his phone and started talking rapidly into it. "Okay, we will meet again at 20 00 hours. Till then, continue doing your work." General Brigham dismissed everyone.

Cage walked back to his quarters, having nothing to do as he had already dealt with the press. He found Rita outside his quarters, leaning against the door as she read something on her phone. The light shone behind her, highlighting her slender figure and her curves. She was wearing only a sports bra and yoga pants, seemingly having just finished her daily yoga practice. The light reflected off her bared midriff, her abs glistening with sweat as she wiped her brow with the back of her hand. Cage stood there, staring at the image before him, his mind going wild. He was suddenly thrown back to reality when Rita looked up at him, and pushed herself off the wall. "How long were you standing there?" Rita demanded, as her cheeks reddened with embarrassment. "I-I just arrived." Cage stuttered. "Whatever." Rita rolled her eyes, "Look, i have something to ask you. Could we talk in private?" Cage nodded, but was interrupted by a sudden blaring of an alarm. "Code Red!" Someone shouted along the corridor, and suddenly the entire base was transformed into a flurry of activity. Rita pushed past him, "Talk to you later." She mumbled as she ran past Cage. Cage turned around and looked at her run down the corridor, then turned the other way and headed to the General's office.

"Look, I'm combat trained. I trained by myself and was trained by Rita Vrataski, and I can go out there and take on the mimics! Didn't you see me earlier? We need more soldiers general, and I'm volunteering myself. " Cage slammed his hands against General's Brigham's desk, the two of them in an argument about allowing Cage to engage in combat. "You have not taken any combat tests, neither have you taken part in combat drills or any formation tactics! You would just run around and get in the way of things! You would't last more than ten minutes out there!" The General roared in response, as the table shook under the weight of the slamming. Cage shook his head, deciding to take on a calmer approach. "Look General. There are civilians counting on us. There are people in this world, nine billion people in this world who are living and do not want to die. If one man can change the entire tide of the war, then we should put everyone we can find in our army. We need everyone we can get to fight against the mimics, and win the war for humankind. I'm volunteering to go in, and I don't need to be in any formation tactics. You can drop me in the frontline and let me take all the fire, I'm fine with it."

General Brigham shook his head, and was about to reply when he was interrupted by his secretary. "General! We have reports coming in from the battlefield! The mimics are overwhelming our ranks, they have sounded a retreat. Here is the report that just came in." She handed a clipboard to General Brigham, who sat back in his chair and sighed deeply. "Half a thousand men lost just now. That totals up to almost a thousand men lost just today." The General looked at Cage in the eye, saying "I don't like the idea of you in the army, but we have no choice. We will deploy you on the frontline in the next battle. Good luck soldier. You are dismissed." Cage smiled and saluted, walking briskly out of the room.

"Cage! Wait up!" Rita's voice rang out as Cage walked off. "I've been looking everywhere for you!" Rita said, catching her breath as she walked next to Cage. "Yea, so what did you want to tell me?" Cage glanced over at the Angel of Verdun, as they headed to his quarters. "Yea, i'd tell you when we get to your quarters" Rita replied, as they entered the building. Looking from side to side, Cage pressed his thumb against the biometric scanner, and the door hissed open. After closing it behind him, Cage stood and gestured Rita to speak. "So what is it?" Cage asked. "Look, I was thinking of ways we could defeat the mimics once and for all. And then I hit it!" Rita said, her eyes gleaming. Cage took a step back, realising what Rita meant. "Whoa, relax for a sec-"

"I need to get back the power. Let's go kill an alpha."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note: Soooo it's been two months. Not gonna delve much into the details, but I got pretty busy with my personal life, sorry for dropping you guys off on a cliffhanger. Currently I am starting on the fourth chapter, and I've received a lot of good and positive comments and suggestions on how I should improve myself, and I'm looking forward to implementing them. Hope you enjoy!**

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"Rita, calm the fuck down. What the hell are you thinking? You can get killed in combat!" Cage exclaimed, gesturing wildly with his hands. Rita's eyes glittered with vengeance as she replied.

"This is our only chance at winning the war. You barely managed to win the last one, and now with three omegas? We as humans won't even stand a chance against them. We need to do this. Please." Rita held his hands, pleading with him to do this for her, for them, and for the humans. Cage evaluated the pros and cons, and did not like what he decided on in the end. "Fine. What if you get killed then? How are we supposed to replace you?" Cage probed further, and Rita replied with a smile.

"Simple, you die too. We can reset the day! If I get killed, make sure you die too. That way we can keep trying until I get the alpha's blood on me, then we can decide our next course of action. Does that sound like a plan?" Cage shook his head, sighing as he stood up. "I still don't like the sound of this, but we have no choice. I'm in. Update me on any changes in plans and the next offensive the general is planning. Please leave me for now. I need to think." Brushing her pants, Rita stood. "Thank you. For everything." With that, she pushed open the door and left the room.

The room descended into silence as Cage pursed his lips and thought about the last exchange. Sighing yet again, he got up as someone knocked on his door. "Who is it?" "It's me, Dr Carter. I have something urgent to talk to you about. Meet me outside hanger 14B in 30 minutes." With that, Cage heard footsteps receding down the corridor outside his quarters. He waited for a minute, then left his room to get some coffee.

The mass hall was full of people when he pushed open the doors to enter. Many of them did not even spare him a glance, which Cage did not care, since he rarely took note of formality. He grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down, nursing a growing headache. He had too much to take in. How was he going to get to Rita on the battlefield? From personal experience, it would be hell down there. Screaming men and screeching aliens would be fighting all over the place, rockets would whizz past and kill good men who barely had time to get off the carriers. Once on the battlefield, one would be so disorientated that he could just start killing everything that moved, letting their primal survival instinct get in the way. It would be extremely hard to get to Rita, not counting in the fact that they had to find an alpha and kill it in such a way that Rita was exposed to the blood. Cage shook his head, finished up his cup of coffee and started towards hanger 14B.

Outside the hanger, Dr Carter was waiting anxiously, hopping from a foot to another as he looked around for him. He gestured towards the hanger, and told Cage to follow him. Once in the hanger, Dr Carter switched on the lights and moved towards the far end of the hanger, gesturing with his hands and talking rapidly. "I've made a breakthrough in my research! Yet again." He muttered under his breath as he led Cage through a door that had a sign saying "Authorised personnel only" Dr Carter reached for the light switch yet again, then hurried over to a table that had a piece of cloth draped over it. "Behold, I managed to create this under the cover of darkness and direct orders from the general, he said that this was to be made for Rita and you. I couldn't get Rita just now, so I decided to show you first." Dr Carter pointed to the table. "What lies under this cloth is a revolutionary piece of technology we just made a breakthrough in shortly after the second generation of jackets. Due to the high cost of materials and manufacturing, we could only afford two sets of these. But first, no touching." With that, Dr Carter took off the cloth with a flourish, and several pieces of metal was laid on the table.

"Dr Carter... Are you sure you know what you're doing? All I see are piece of useless metal on this table." Cage said sarcastically, unable to control himself any longer. "You brought me here to look at some metal? I have better things to do." "Please, Major Cage, let me explain. What you see in front of you are not useless pieces of metal, they are your customised jacket technology. We have decided to call them the Customisable Enhanced Nanotechnology Operative Suits, CENOS for short. It's made out of a newly created alloy called duronium, part titanium and part aluminum. This creates an extremely durable yet lightweight material that is suited for your, well, suits."

Cage stopped, excited by what he heard. "So you're saying that these few pieces of metal are parts of a suit that is made out of a new material? I heard something about nanotechnology. What does that have to do with this?" Dr Carter stopped to readjust his spectacles, a newly acquired thing that he had not been used to. "These suits are coated with layers of nanomites, robots the size of nanometre. They have many functions such as being able to withstand an entire javelin shot." At that, Cage widened his eyes with disbelief, saying, "That's impossible. I've seen a single javelin missle destroy an entire convoy of troops. You're telling me tiny robots are able to withstand that?" Dr Carter shrugged and replied, "They haven't been field tested yet, but I've done the calculations and it is possible to withstand a javelin missile without any major damage. You see, the nanomites gather at the point of impact, then dissipates to widen the pressure and force of the impact. This allows the suit to take very minor damage, without any damage to the person inside the suit. This applies to bullets too. The nanomites can easily deflect bullets and soak them up, so you won't need to worry about our own men shooting at you once you're suited up."

"In addition to the defensive capabilities, the CENOS makes the MKII look like a child's toy. The top speed of the CENOS is forty to fifty miles per hour, with an acceleration rate of up to 5 miles per hour per second. This means that it takes eight to ten seconds to hit top speed. Meanwhile, our jacket MKII can only hit a measly 20 miles per hour top speed, with a pathetic acceleration rate of 3 miles per hour per second. You can keep up with the mimics, maybe even outrun them. As I said, these suits are not field tested yet, even when calculations say that they are able to do so." Cage stood, soaking in the new information, as Dr Carter continued his explanation of the new suit.

"Other than speed, the suit gives you inhumane strength too. The CENOS is able to make you hit like a rock, with the nanomites gathering at the point of impact while your helmet calculates the angle to inflict the highest amount of damage. Speaking of the helmet, the helmet is a high tech piece of equipment, able to respond to your body needs. It can calculate everything, from flight trajectory to mimic movement, provide detailed infrared maps from your point of view and satellite images, and even predict mimic movements. It also allows for auto-aiming, so you don't need to think, just pull the trigger and watch the mimic bodies pile up. That concludes my briefing about the CENOS, would you like to try it out now? It takes some time to get used to, and it's customisable too." Dr Carter finished, smiling as he took in his masterpiece. He was extremely proud of the suits, since it was the bleeding edge technology at that time.

"Su-sure. How do you get it on?" Cage looked around, but he did not see any jacket stations around. "Ahh, the suits require manual work to put on, but don't worry. I'd train a few engineers to know how to put on your suits, and they will answer to only you and Rita. For now, I'd help you put on your suit." Dr Carter said nervously, obviously as excited as Cage was.

* * *

Three hours passed as Cage tried out the capabilities of the CENOS in the hanger. He thanked Dr Carter and made sure that his jacket station would hold the CENOS instead of the jacket MKII in case of any emergencies. He then jogged over to the showers and washed up, as the day turned to night. As the steam rose around him, Cage thought about the suit. With the new suit he could do it, he realised. He could get Rita to come into contact with alpha blood and give her the power too! The suit could do almost anything and it was unstoppable too, all he needed to do was to try and find an alpha. Turning off the shower head, he towelled off and headed back to his quarters for a few hours of sleep.

* * *

The ground shuddered as alarms blared in the distance. Cage sat up in his bed, shaking the stars out of his sight. He heard urgent footsteps outside his quarters and along the corridors - it was either a drill or the base was under attack again. He put on his clothes, got out of his quarters to bump into a soldier. "Sorry Sir, the base is under attack! The General has ordered all available soldiers to suit up and defend the civvies. We better hurry up, they are breaching Zone A already!" With that, the soldier hurried off, presumably towards his hanger. Cage stood there, transfixed by a spot on the wall as the knowledge he had just received sank in. The base was under attack! He shook himself awake, and started running towards his hanger. He needed to reach the suit!

The base was swarming with soldiers. Gunfire and smoke was in the air as the sirens continued blaring. Cage managed to reach hanger 9A, his assigned hanger, where a technician was waiting there. Cage called him over from under a desk, as they spent the next few excruciatingly long minutes to put on the CENOS. Finally, amidst all the gunfire and yells, Cage put on his helmet, and the display winked to life before his eyes. "Major Cage" He announced, having voice activated the suit during his training a few hours ago. By then, Cage was fully awake and ready for battle. Suddenly, the helmet blared out a warning. "Javelin incoming!" It said. Cage turned to the technician, but before he had time to say anything the hanger turned white before his eyes, and the last thing he say was the blurry image of the burning wreckage falling on him.

* * *

 **Author's note: How was it? I introduced a new technology today, having read it from somewhere I can't really recall. Chapter 5 will be out soon, so do keep an eye out for it! Till then, cheers! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: So I'm back! And i've decided to try uploading more frequently to make up for that terrible two months of hiatus and cliffhanger. Without further ado, welcome to chapter 5, hope you enjoy! Do remember to leave reviews, it can be anything as long as it is constructive (If it is criticism) or positive! Have a nice day :)**

* * *

Cage was jolted back to the real world as the suit's stimpacks was injected into his bloodstream, millions of nanomites rippling throughout his suit as it shifted to bear the weight of the burning metal that sat above Cage. Cage grunted as he lifted his hands to push the metal off him, the wreckage scraping against each other as he shifted it slowly. At last, he managed to push off the last of the metal wreckage from his body, and stood up to assess the damage. The hanger he had been in had be targetted by a javelin missile, bring it down upon him. Luckily, Cage was wearing a near indestructible suit that could withstand high amounts of damage, thus he managed to survive the missile shot. He glanced downwards and noticed a hand sticking out of the rubble. He grabbed the pieces of the wreckage and moved them aside to uncover the body, and it turned out to be the engineer that had helped Cage put on his suit. No time to bury him though, for the air was full of gunfire and the shrieking of a million mimics.

Cage accessed the aerial view of the base and activated the night vision overlay. The mimics had destroyed the first zone of the base, Zone A, where the soldiers trained. They were attempting to breach zone B and D, where the hangers and quarters were. Often, a javelin missile was shot from behind the enemy lines, only to be shot back down by the anti-aircraft guns. They were not perfect though, for a small number of missiles managed to breach the zone and destroy buildings. Cage's helmet beeped, taking note that there was a hostile incoming from the right, and closing fast. Cage tuned to his right and lifted his handgun - and the last thing the mimic saw was the angel of death himself, as he shot a single bullet that pierced its heart.

Cage reloaded, taking note that the handgun that was inbuilt had a small magazine of three bullets, but they could deal heavy damage if aimed right. He started sprinting towards zone B, the mechanics of his suit speeding up and growing hotter as Cage accelerated to 40 miles per hour. Cage took note of the damage done to the hangers as he sped past zone C, the zone he was in. He spotted the area where the main battle was, the mimics digging straight into the hard concrete with their tendrils, creating trenches between the humans and the aliens. Cage jumped, the boots of his suit propelling him forward together with his momentum. He landed heavily on the right flank of the enemy line, throwing mimics into the air as he immediately took out a mimic with his handgun and punched another so hard that its face crumpled under the force of his punch. The mimics were so surprised that a single human was so daring and reckless so as to jump straight into their lines, and a few of them started to tunnel under him, going underground so as to surprise Cage.

Cage swapped his handgun for his rifle, the suit neatly accommodating for the loss of the rifle and the new addition of the handgun in the holster. His helmet instantly identified hostiles and his hand went up automatically, firing a few shots at mimics with deadly precision that took them down easily. When his rifle spat empty shells, he swapped his rifle for his handgun, as the suit automatically started reloading the rifle on his back, taking no less than 15 seconds to fully load the rifle. Cage continued the massacre, swapping ever so often between his handgun and rifle, and soon the mimics realised they no longer had the advantage of surprise and darkness. A call went up in the distance, as the mimics started to fall back.

"Pursue them!" Cage roared, his voice thick with bloodlust. "Kill every one of the aliens!" The soldiers behind him repeated his order as they rushed to follow him into the darkness. "Cage, come in, come in" His helmet beeped as he ran over the debris of zone A. "I hear you, who is it?" "It's me, Rita. The mimics are falling back in zone D, I'd be joining you in zone A." "Negative, stay in your zone and defend if needed. I'm pursing the mimics out of zone A, you stay at the base and check for any survivors."

"Damnit Cage, you better not overextend. Don't lead your soldiers into a massacre" Rita said. "Got it, I'm closing onto the mimics. Talk later." Cage could see the edges of the field that the mimics had set up base camp at, and the hordes of mimics climbing back into it. He muttered into his helmet, and a second later his rifle was in his hands, and he was gunning down stragglers. The mimics turned around and shrieked, and started clawing their way to Cage. He turned around, his soldiers were nowhere to be seen, the mimics were suddenly turning extremely aggressive and soon surrounded him. He punched and shot into the crowd, but whenever he downed a mimic two seemed to replace it. Out of the corner of his eye as he was busy killing the mimics, a giant shape rose. The helmet suddenly started blaring alarms that told him to retreat if he did not have enough firepower. Cage was startled, and turned to the shape in the fog. From the shadows of the mimics and the bodies that lay on the ground, an alpha mimic came into view. "Shit." Cage cursed, and directed all his firepower to the alpha. From tens of metres away, the alpha started moving towards Cage, as he felt the tendrils of the mimics stab into his back with no avail. Suddenly, it happened. When the alpha was about twenty metres away, it suddenly shifted out of focus and disappeared.

Cage had no time to think, and immediately diverted his gun to the other mimics. Suddenly, the alpha shifted back into focus, right in front of him. Cage gasped as the alpha swiped at him, throwing him back a few metres straight into the trunk of a tree. He felt something crack in his body, as the helmet informed him that the suit integrity was at 43%. The nanomites were failing as there were not enough of them to protect his body, and the last thing Cage saw was the alpha lifting him up, and squeezing until the suit cracked and his entire body felt nothing but pain.

* * *

Cage sat awake and gasped, his body slick with sweat. Was it just a dream? He stumbled out of his quarters, as it suddenly hit him. He had revived. He had reset the day, since he still had the power of time control. He shook his head. There would be an attack on the base that night. He had to warn the General, he had to warn everybody! He grabbed his phone and dialled for the General, requesting an urgent meeting with him immediately. His secretary said he was currently in a meeting, he could meet Cage in about 30 minutes at his office. Cage shook his head, there was something amiss in the fight. How did the mimic suddenly disappear? He replayed the events of the fight, and winced as he remembered how the suit had cracked around him, his protective shell being breached as his helmet screamed out warnings and alerts. His bones being crushed in the grip of the alpha, as his life was squeezed out of him. He shook his head, went to grab a cup of coffee from the mass hall as a migraine formed in his head yet again.

"Sir, you have to believe me. There will be an attack from the mimics tonight, at this base! They will breach Zone A first, then attempt to enter zone B and D. Our defenses would stand a chance against them. You have to listen to me, this is not a joke or a prank. This involves every single life on this base, and we need to be ready for tonight! Sir? Are you listening to me?" Cage demanded as he explained to General Brigham. The General paced his room, taking it in. "The reports shows that the mimics are currently staying within their base of operations, with no attempt to leave anytime soon. It's hard to track their numbers, since some of them reportedly have tunneling abilities and have possibly set up an underground base. Our defenses are good enough and can withstand attacks from the mimics. Major, you are wasting my time. Dismissed." Cage took a step back, horrified at how the General had dismissed the idea of an attack on the base so easily, with a flick of his hand. Remembering what had happened the last time, Cage made no comment, and left the room.

He went back to his quarters, thinking of what he needed to do. He had to tell Rita! He needed to make sure that she would be prepared, and they could learn how to use the CENOS quickly so as to defend the base as fast as possible. He contacted Rita, but her phone was off. That meant she was probably training. He found her doing her favourite legless pushups, and urgently told her that he needed to talk to her. Rita looked annoyed at having her training interrupted again, but once she saw the look on Cage's face she knew something was wrong. "Dr Carter is going to give us a set of new suits later today. We are going to need it. He's gonna be outside my room soon, to test the suit out. We need to train in them while we still can." Cage explained as they headed over to his quarters. Rita looked lost as she asked Cage what did he mean. Cage stopped, speaking rapidly and using his hands to gesture wildly. "The mimics are going to attack the base tonight. I was killed the last time by an alpha that i tracked down to their operating base. This is our chance! Firstly we need to train in the new suits that Dr Carter designed, we need it to defend the base tonight." Rita said no more, understand the urgency of the matter.

"Major Cage? Meet me outside hanger 14B in 30 minutes time. Major Cage?" They found Dr Carter hammering away outside Cage's quarters. "Oh, you're here. I was just going to..."

"No time to talk, Rita, we need to move to hanger 14B. Dr Carter, there will be an attack tonight. Suit us up so that we can train further and defend the base tonight." Cage said, as Dr Carter looked confused. "Dr Carter...?" He prompted, and Dr Carter snapped out of his daze. "An attack? Oh god. Let me take you to your suits." With that, the trio got to hanger 14B, and started training.

* * *

They suited up once again after eating something light, for Cage always believed that you could not fight on an empty stomach. They waited in a hanger around the perimeter of zone A, waiting for the mimics to come. Cage had tried to warn General Brigham yet again but was send out with a warning not to come back and talk about that "nonsense" again. They had no choice but to use everything they had, for the defense of the base rested on their shoulders. "They should be coming soon." Cage whispered into his helmet. "There will be an alarm and the mimics will destroy the perimeter guns first. " Before he could say anything else, a chilling shriek of the mimics sounded in the distance, as the alarm started to blare. The perimeter guns came to life, their motion sensors identifying mimics and gunning them down. The hordes of mimics reached the perimeter walls, and easily overtook the perimeter guns. Cage signalled _now_ and the duo burst from their hanger. The mimics were surprised as they did not expect the humans to suit up so fast and respond to their threat, but quickly overcame their surprise when they noticed that there were only two humans blindly firing into the hordes. However, these two humans were covered in a bleeding-edge technology suit, and could not be killed easily. They started gunning down mimics, throwing a grenade here and there to cause even more havoc and chaos in the mimic hordes. The mimics split up as Cage and Rita backed up, heading to attack the flanks of the soldiers that were reaching the perimeter of zone A.

Cage continued firing into the hordes of mimics, taking hundreds of them down with precise rounds to the heart or the skull. Another cry went down the line of mimics as the first javelin missile took flight, and smashed into the group of soldiers. Most of them died instantly, the rest slowly burning out, cooking in their jackets as the flames licked up their charred bodies. Cage said a single word into his helmet, and Rita instantly moved at the same time Cage did. They propelled themselves forward, and jumped, their momentum bringing them up into 15 metres in the air, as they each unleashed a rocket from a rocket launcher that they had gotten from the armoury. They fell as the rocket detonated, blowing up hundreds of mimics and tossing the mimic carcasses aside. The duo landed in the mass of mimics, and took out their knifes, a serrated knife that was enhanced by vibrating in their hands to ensure cleaner cuts and quicker deaths. They went hand to hand combat with the mimics, hardly feeling pain when the tendrils of the mimics stabbed at their armour. "Suit integrity's at 65%, you?" Cage yelled as he took a mimic down by slicing its face open. "58%, it's going down slowly!" Rita yelled back into her helmet, busy making mincemeat of another mimic. "Remember, 40% or lower and you need to back up!" Cage said, his body starting to become worn out from the tiring battle.

Time passed in a blur. Mimics were slashed, gunned down and punched. Bodies piled up on the ground, and the two soldiers found themselves fighting back to back while standing on the dead mimics. The mimics were wary of them, as they kept a tight circle around Cage and Rita. Suddenly, the circle opened up as two mimics stepped backwards. Cage tried to say something but never got to say it, as an alpha materialised out of thin air and slammed into Cage, knocking him into the air. Cage hit the ground with a loud thud, the nanomites sacrificing themselves to prevent Cage from breaking any bones. Rita cried out "Cage!" As she was lifted by the mimic, and Cage heard the distinct cracking of the suit as it opened up and Rita died in the tendrils of the alpha. Cage stood up warily, knowing that he needed to die, but something stopped him in his tracks. It finally hit him, the one missing thing he overlooked. Cage took off his helmet, squinting into the darkness as the night vision turned off. The alpha leapt upon him, going in for the kill.

* * *

"Ah!" Cage screamed, as he bolted upright again in his bed. He had died again. This time, however, he knew what was different. He knew what the alpha could do. The alpha was green in colour, different from the blue alpha he had killed. This time, the alpha did not have time controlling powers. He sighed, knowing that the aliens had come up with something new to defeat the humans, and they were succeeding.

The green alpha could teleport.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: How was the last chapter? After 5 chapters, i finally made Cage die :) I woke up one day with the idea of incorporating more "powers" that the alphas had to make Cage something like a supersoldier, along with Rita. Do tell me if you enjoy it! It's something new i'm experimenting with, and i want to hear from you, the readers. Anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Cage sat upright on his bed, rubbing his head as another splitting headache struck him relentlessly. He pondered his options, armed with the new knowledge that he should be able to teleport just like how that green alpha did. Cage focused at the far end of his quarters, and tried to teleport there. Nothing happened. He tried holding his breath. He tried saying "teleport" out loud, as stupid as it sounded. Still, nothing happened. Cage flopped back on his bed in frustration - he needed to figure out how the teleportation idea worked before the attack came at night. After a while of sulking in bed, Cage got up and did the same that he did the previous life, try to get to Rita and train in the suits together with Dr Carter.

Cage found himself running alongside Rita, the servos of the CENOS whirring almost silently as he kept pace with her. The landscape sped past as they picked up pace, hitting the top speed of the suit. Cage had long given up small talk, his sole focus on training Rita on using the suit to repel the attackers at night. Cage's thoughts wandered as he ran on and on, allowing Rita to get used to the speed of the suit. He thought about the morning, where he had tried to teleport. He had pulled Dr Carter aside and told him about the green alpha and the ability to teleport, and to get any ideas as to use the ability. Dr Carter had only shrugged and replied that the humans were barely knowledgeable about the blue alpha's ability to reset time, and now there were more abilities to think about. Cage sighed in despair as the sun set beyond the horizon, and darkness fell. The attack was imminent, and he had not figured out anything yet. He looked at his in-built clock display in his helmet. 18 17 hours. The mimics would arrive in roughly half an hour, raining destruction on the base. "The mimics will be coming soon." Cage glanced over towards Rita, and gave her a nod of acknowledgement. They had laid out battle plans and how the mimics would attack the base. They had tried to warn the General again, to no avail. "The base in impenetrable!" He had thundered. "No mimic can set foot or whatever disgusting shit they have for legs on this base! Don't waste my time with stupid ideas and theories like that again." Cage and Rita had long suited up, arming themselves with whatever they needed. Cage opted for his suit's basic weapon setup, the modified handgun, his favourite rifle and a newly prototyped weapon, an energy based weapon made from mimic technology. "It's called the tesla MKI" Dr Carter had said proudly. "My own invention. I managed to salvage a javelin that didn't detonate

Cage and Rita had long suited up, arming themselves with whatever they needed. Cage opted for his suit's basic weapon setup, the modified handgun, his favourite rifle and a newly prototyped weapon, an energy based weapon made from mimic technology. "It's called the tesla MKI" Dr Carter had said proudly. "My own invention. I managed to salvage a javelin that didn't detonate somehow, and managed to use the materials inside to fashion this gun. It's somewhat like an alien taser that doesn't require reloading, you just have to recharge the battery packs i installed. It's simple, just point and shoot. The gun will be able to fry a mimic from the inside out, but sorry if it backfires. It's alien technology after all, and I don't really have unlimited lives to test that out." Cage had grabbed it and tested it in the training ground, and the metal claw that was supposed to act like mimics had exploded, the electronics overheating as thousands of volts of electricity raced across the circuitry. The General had reprimanded Cage, and it did not help that Cage had come to the General about the attack again.

Meanwhile, Rita had armed herself with the same rifle Cage had, and a serrated knife that was extremely effective when coming to hand-to-hand combat with the mimics. The blade was made to vibrate at a high frequency, so fast that the blade blurred slightly. It helped to cleave through muscle, tissue, mimic armour and pretty much anything that the mimics were made of. It could make an extremely clean cut with minimal effort, something Rita treasured a lot. Of course, Rita carried her favourite sword, the sword that had helped her achieve victory in Verdun. She had taken a liking to it, after coming close to death's doorstep but was yanked back by her trusty sword. Cage and Rita finished up final battle preparations and prepared to hide in the nearest hanger in zone A. Cage checked the clock in his helmet again. 18 42 hours. "Anytime now." He breathed into his helmet, the comms radio long checked and prepped for combat. "Roger, I'd take the left flank." Rita had her rifle at the ready, a gleaming weapon that all marines used and was in-built into the jackets. It was a semi-automatic that ripped through mimics , but had a hard time breaking through the thick armour that mimics tended to have around their head sections. For that though, Rita had her trusty sword and the serrated knife. All Cage and Rita could do was just wait, in the darkness of the hanger as the night fell deeper into the darkness.

* * *

The first sirens blared as the first wave of mimics bore down towards the base, the might of a thousand mimics. The defensive walls shook as the bodies of mimics pounded against it, the turrets coming to life. The turrets immediately started gunning down mimics, the air full of 40 mm bullets as the turrets shot them out of the twin barrels at a hundred miles per hour. The bullets tore through mimic armour platings, entry holes appearing all over the mimics that took the bullets for the army. The bodies of mimics started to pile up against the wall, as the unending waves of mimics crawled over their fallen, slowly scaling the wall in a gruesome irony that they had to sacrifice some of them to push forward. Cage and Rita held their breath as the walls shook but was not breached, due to the armoured layers they had furnished the wall with - making it almost impermeable. It consisted of glass fibres that had millions of nanobots in a single square metre. The nanobots are able of sacrificing themselves to repair the wall, technology salvaged from the tissue regeneration genes of the mimics, a breakthrough when research teams were able to dissect a fresh mimic corpse. The CENOS that Rita and Cage were wearing were actually made after the wall and the technology, however like all things, they never lasted.

As the first mimic reached the top of the wall, it let lose a screech that could be heard for miles away - the signal that the mimics had breached the base. One by one, the defensive turrets were overrun as the mimics leapt from the ten-metre high wall and into the base. Soldiers started to fire as the mimics dropped to the ground, their guns screaming as they spat bullets upon bullets. Mimics screamed in a high pitched whine as they shuddered when the bullets thudded against their armoured platings. "Now!" Cage and Rita sprung their trap, the duo coming from the North and South, flanking the massive wave of mimics and working their way towards each other. Cage took out the first mimic of the battle easily, a shot straight through the mouth like appendage of the mimic that wormed its way through the entire head, punching through the back of its mouth as the creature spasmed in its last death throes. His sensors indicated another mimic barrelling down on his 9 o'clock, and he instantly shot a javelin shot into the mimic's body using the tesla gun. The mimic screamed in its high pitched whine, as a few thousand volts of electricity discharged into its body. On the other flank of the mimics, Rita sliced through her own first mimic kill of the battle by gripping her sword with both hands and slicing upwards as a mimic leapt towards her. What used to be a fearsome alien creature that had took the lives of millions was reduced to two smoking heaps of alien muscle and armour as Rita turned towards the swarm of aliens that were invading the base.

"One down, a few million left."

* * *

They hacked, slashed and shot their way towards each other, the seconds blurring into minutes, the minutes blurring into hours. The sun rose and cast the base in a red shadow as the battle ended, the green alpha not turning up to the battle at all. Had it, too, awoke from its slumber knowing that Cage had the power too? Maybe because of that fact, the invasion of the base had continued but the arrival of the green alpha had not taken place. Whatever the case, Cage was glad he could live for a new day. He breathed heavily as he glanced over at Rita, the blood of mimics splattering their suits. Containment teams had already been dispatched to clean up the remains of the mimics, while being accompanied by soldiers lest there were stragglers around the base. Communications and video imaging were still down, the message passed by word of mouth down the chain of command. The blood soon disappeared from their suits, the nanobots within already breaking down the putrid chemicals the mimics were reduced to. A soldier caught up with Cage as he started towards the surviving hangers. Cage recognised the soldier as Mark Wilson, a joker he had once had the misfortune to teach. A freshie out of boot camp, he was in his early twenties and had jet black hair. Mark was known for his drawling Asian voice, both parents being Japanese who were killed in the first wave of mimics that had landed on Earth. He was short and scrawny, no taller than a metre and a half. Mark was so scrawny that since muscles were called guns, he probably had water guns for muscles. However, his speed and stamina made up for his lack of strength. Able to run a mile under five minutes, he was almost superhuman when it came to running. For that exact reason, after Cage had submitted his report on Mark being a total useless soldier at shooting, he was used as a runner and scout, trained in the art of stealth and demolitions. He was one of the few men to be put in a newly made squadron called the Demolition Devils, a bunch of misfits that were somehow skilled in the art of sneaking in and out of fortified enemy positions and sabotaging enemy operations. They were, however, known for their first battle, where they single-handedly took out almost an eighth of the mimic's army strength through underground mines, burying the mimics alive as they tried to burrow underground. Since the division had been recalled back to base to stop operations due to dwindling army size, they were used as messengers instead.

"Sir, The General needs you two in his office ASAP." Mark said after a smart salute.

"Sure thing, let me just get out of my suit first. Relay my message to him that I'd be there in ten." With a nod, Mark sped off towards the General's office, as Cage nodded at Rita to continue walking. The battle fatigue started to wear heavily on them, as the adrenaline wore off and they felt the effects of straining their bodies. Ahead of them, hanger 8A stood proudly, save for a few craters here and there around the hanger, as buildings around the base burned brightly under the rising red sun.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Chapter 6! Finally it's done. It took a while to churn this out as i took a short break from writing. I was spurred on to continue writing all of a sudden when i found the book i have been looking for - all you need is kill. It's a book that possibly, if not inspired the movie edge of tomorrow. I did a few comparisions, took a few ideas and drawn up a few more side plots and all. Be sure to watch out for new characters or hints that i will be dropping in the next few chapters.**

 **Another thing i wanted to talk about is the quality and quantity of chapters - School is starting soon for me and i don't want to be held down by continuously thinking/writing this story, hence the frequency of new chapters will take a while. However, the quality and length of chapters will be better, since i will be a taking a longer time to write a new chapter. I can't promise anything now, but i'm sure that you will notice the difference in my writing soon.**

 **Lastly, keep the reviews coming! I enjoy reading your constructive criticism, or simply feeling guilty at the comments that complain about my cliffhangers. (maybe not) I usually reply reviews with a rather lengthy personal message, feel free to drop a review asking anything about me or the story and i'd reply you soon! I enjoy reaching out to my readers after all. If you have any suggestions about plot ideas or ways to improve my writing skills, just pm me.**

 **That's all i have for this chapter and author's note, i hope you enjoyed this chapter and as always, see you next chapter! :)**


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry for long lapse (again) in my writing - school has started and you know, priorities. Coincidentally i'm taking writing modules, that's totally gonna play hand in hand with these fanfictions right? :D Then again, soon i'd be boggled down with so much work that i'd just wither away and crumble and then die because the workload is insane. Hope yall enjoy chapter 7, i've spent some time planning it out and all. Thanks for reading!

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The mimic attack had ceased to be, thanks to the work of Cage and Rita. However, most of the base were lying in ruins, burning as soldiers and cleanup crews roamed the base, using their suits to lift slabs of concrete and recover people or important documents. Engineers had be set on rebuilding the wall, after being scolded to hell and back by the General, for it was said that the wall was impenetrable. Out of all the buildings, though, somehow to upper levels of the main headquarters were untouched. Soldiers hurried all over the place, non-military personnel picking up phones and speaking rapidly. The entire floor was chaos, as the duo walked over to the lift and pressed the down button. The General's office was located on the 6th level of the lower levels, where engineers and construction teams had spent weeks furiously building the headquarters day and night lest the mimics attacked again.

"How did you know?" The General asked as soon as they entered, not giving a single glance at both of them as he stared down at his paperwork. Cage glanced at Rita, a brief eye-to-eye contact that conveyed much more than he had expected. Rita furiously shook her head, indicating that it would not be a good idea to reveal Cage's powers yet. "Answer me. How did you know the mimics were going to attack at sundown?" The General spoke again, this time looking both of them in the eye, one by one. "Sir, we just had a hunch. We weren't sure if the mimics were actually coming or not, we just felt that if we were mimics, sundown would be a good time to attack when the soldiers were tired from trainings." Cage replied, noting the slght quivering in his hands. The General tilted his head slightly, giving away the impression he did not buy the story. "Our seismic engineers did not note any change in seismic activity till the minute the mimics attacked, when we activated the wall turrets. How did you manage to predict exactly when the mimics attacked? Don't give me any of that bullshit answers. I want real facts. You have seen our base right now Major. It's destroyed. I need to know how you managed to predict that they would attack, so that we can actually prepare for their coming instead of sitting on our fat asses and sucking our thumbs!" The General was standing now, his fists placed on the desk. His face was red, as the paperwork fluttered to the floor, forgotten. Rita looked at Cage, as Cage stuttered out the same reply as just now. "We really don't know sir, it was simply a hunch."

The General turned around, hands behind his back. "Get out of my office. I want a full report by 1200 today." The two soldiers stood there, rooted to the ground as they processed what the General was saying. He turned around, surprised that the duo was still there. "GET OUT!" He bellowed, as Cage's senses came back and he saluted and got out of the office as fast as possible. In the lift, they finally breathed a sigh of relief. The lift doors opened to the same chaotic scene they had witness when they entered HQ, everyone rushing all over the place. When they left the HQ building, they look around the base, acessing the functional buildings. So far most of the bunks and quarters were untouched, as they were on the far side of the base when the mimics attacked. Most of the hangers were down, suits crushed by the concrete and metal. The two soldiers had stored their CENOS in a functional hanger, where they found Dr. Carter cowering under a table. The mess hall somehow survived the mimic encounter, as well as the training rooms. The mimics had only done extensive damage to the hangers, although the hangers covered almost half of the base, and the runway strip. "Bastards took down our air capability, they took down our ground capability." Cage gritted his teeth as they walked across the ruined runway. "They attacked us first so we couldn't launch a quick counterattack on any of their bases, dammit!" Rita stayed silent as they came across a burning plane, one of the few planes they had left. After the mimic attack, they had no more functional planes left, and no more planes would be produced due to the onslaught of mimics across the world. The factories that were still functional would be producing more jackets to make up for the ones lost under the hangers.

"We better head back to write our reports, the General would kill us if we sent them in late." Rita stayed silent, as they walked back to their respective quarters to begin their lengthy reports. As the clock struck 1100, Cage had not finished most of his report. Instead, he was thinking about the fight earlier, analysing how the mimics had conducted their attacks. Before long, his thoughts drifted off to his childhood.

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 **6 Years Ago - First Contact**

Ever since Cage was 18 years old, his world had turned upside down. The mimics had attacked without question, the meteorites striking into the earth and the omega setting its organic mass upon the earth. The alphas were birthed, each with the power to turn back time to the start of the day while retaining its memories. From the alphas, squadrons of mimics were bourne, the drone classes. They were the grunts, the frontliners. Expendable, replaceable, these drones spend most of their lives fighting against the soldiers of humanity and then dying in their attempts or succeeding in an attack, only to be killed the next day. Alphas replaced the drones at an alarming rate, for their armies were never-ending. However, due to the connection between drone and alpha minds, an alpha could only birth up to a maximum of twenty drones, Same ideology went for the omega, a fact that humanity never knew and was an advantage they never used.

The second the news about a massive meteorite impacting the outreaches of Russia were spread over the world, people came from all continents to gaze upon the 13-ton meteorite that had crashed on the Russian countryside. Meteorite enthusiasts were thrilled, it was one of the biggest impacts recorded in human history. Thankfully it had landed on the countryside, damage had only been done to the plants growing. Since it had struck the Earth with great force, it had buried itself deep within the Earth's crust, almost half a mile deep. When news reporters and people reached the impact zone, all they could see was the decaying plants and the crater the meteorite had left on the earth. They never found the meteorite, for it had been transported. All they could find were tunnels, molten rock dripping from the sides of the cave as something massive had burrowed its way through solid rock. From the mimic base of operations in Verdun, the omega birthed the first wave of alphas, granting them the ability to manipulate time. The alphas in turn birthed the drones, where the expansion of base grounds begun. For weeks, the news of the missing metorite died down, although conspiracy radios still talked about aliens visiting earth and that government were hiding the truth from the people. They were half right of course, as the mimics had set foot on earth. Two months later, when all preparations for the emergence of the mimics were complete, the omega changed the course of humanity forever.

Waves of mimics surged from the ground as unsuspecting civilians were crushed under the first wave of the drones. Building after building collapsed as the drones broke through the foundations, their hard exoskeletons allowing them to survive the impact without any major breaches. Infrastructure stood no chance either, when the mimics destroyed highways and tore schools down. Within an hour, a full mile radius around the mimic's main base had fallen into the alien's hands. By then, governments worldwide had been alerted to the alien threat. Immediately putting aside past conflicts and disagreements, they pooled their resources together to launch a counterattack. When the counterattack was launched two hours later, a worldwide military operation that included five hundred and forty thousand men, only a mere thousand survived. Stunned by the overpowering might of the mimic's invasion force, all civillians were evacuated off France and military personnel formed blockades around France. The governments around the world hoped to contain the mimic's advance to only France. Of course, they were wrong.

One by one, contact was lost with the blockades that were put in place around France. Humanity soon lost France, Germany, Spain and Italy. The governments had pooled their money and resources together to form the United Defence Forces, while the mimics ravaged across the continent. Fortunately, the mimics were constrained by water, for unknown reasons. Thus, they used land to expand their teritory, pushing into the heart of Europe. The soldiers of the UDF found their old weapons to be useless, the bullets of their guns glancing off the hard exoskeletons of the mimics, the planes they used were way too slow and not fast enough to evade the heat-seeking javelin missles that the mimics used against both ground and air forces. Aircraft carriers and battleships proved to be useless, for the mimics would launch so many javelin missles that the sky would turn dark for a few minutes, as the missles rained hell upon the ships. All hope was lost for humanity, for the aliens were virtually undefeatable, plans and old strategies to contain the mimic invasion failed over and over again.

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 **2 Years after First Contact**

Cage remembered reading the newspapers and watching the television as the news reported more on the mimic invasion. The military were recruiting as usual, due to the lack of soldiers and high amount of desertation cases. Food and land were becoming scarce, as the mimics took more land from the humans. Within two years, the mimics had taken over the entirety of Europe and Africa, and were moving on to Asia. Before long, they would have devised a way to reach America. Humanity required soldiers who would give their lives for the people and to stop the mimic advance, but even so that seemed like a death trap. Life expectancy during the Vietnam War was 28 days, 24 during the Korean War, and a feeble 6 days during the Mimic War. Cage had reached the age of enlistment, and his parents were moving around to prevent the officials from knocking on their door. Even so, Cage knew he could never escape his fate. He was doomed to bleed out on the battlefield, where his fellow men were cut down by the ruthless aliens and humanity plunged into a deeper well. One day, the officials did find him. With much screaming and crying, his parents let him go, expecting to never see him again. Years later he would find out that they had committed suicide, the letter they left behind explaining that they had nothing left to live for.

Despite his fears of dying on the battlefield, Cage was turned into a Public Relations Official. Owing to his good looks and inspiring speeches, the General had opted to appoint him as the face of the UDF, where he would inspire soldiers and rally the troops against the aliens. Cage would feel lucky and awed to be given such a title, for he could survive during the war without doing any actual combat, and be able to contribute to humanity. He finally felt that he was doing something right and was finally able to do something that could help, instead of cowering in fear, hoping that the mimics would not find him.

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 **5 Years after First Contact**

5 long years had passed since humanity's encounter with the aliens. By then, the entire Europe, African and Asian continents had been taken over by the aliens. Soldiers and officials from the continents that were under mimic control had long evacuated to America, where the heart of the UDF were. That was when humanity made its first breakthrough in the war on mimics. The remaining countries had pooled their last bit of resources, constructed facilities and factories. It was then the Jacket technology was born. The first prototypes were extremely heavy, with very little combat use. They were mainly used to build and construct buildings, but one day a military official had a breakthrough regarding the jacket technology. What if they added combat purposes to the jacket technology, to fight against the oncoming mimic threat, to push them back? With that, the tide of the war had changed. Humanity had been given a new purpose, a new sense of direction to fight against the aliens. Coupled with the public relations campaign that Cage carried out, the rates of enlistment skyrocketed, the morale of the army increased drastically. Before long, jacket suits were pumped out at a rate of a hundred a day, the numerous factories that sprang up across the countryside continuously producing the suits day and night as the black clouds of soot and poisonous chemicals rose into the air.

With the improvements of military technology on the rise, new scientific breakthroughs were made, and the battles between man and alien became on par. Before long, with the enlistment of Rita Vrtaski, Verdun was reclaimed by the human race. Many factors had contributed to the fall of Verdun, the main ones were the fact that the mimics had actually intentionally given up Verdun to trick the UDF into pilling their entire resources for another all out attack, another main factor was the usage of the mimic's ability, the ability that Rita had gained by killing an alpha, thus tainting her bloodstream with their alien blood.

Another year passed, as the Angel of Verdun brought in more and more victories. The amount of mimic kills she had racked up had outnumbered any of the other marines in the entire UDF. Thanks to the jacket technology and Rita Vrataski, the life expectancy of the soldiers had increased from a mere 6 days to 15 days, a large improvement as soldiers could enter battles and most would survive.

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 **Present Time**

Cage snapped out of his daydream, his report half finished in his hands. The time was 1130, and he had to rush through the second half of his report. Soon he managed to churn out his report, and submitted it to the General. His stomach rumbled as he realised that he had not eaten since the previous day, where he had been training with Rita to repel the mimic attack. While gobbling down the mashed potatoes, he received a message from Dr. Carter. Cage felt a flash of surprise, for he did not expect the cell lines to be functional so quickly. One of the first things that the mimics had taken out when they attacked the base was the capability to notify other bases that had sprung up in the country, so messages would not come in till it was fixed. Then again, the base held well-trained engineers, who were able to fix almost anything quickly. After finishing up his mashed potatoes, Cage strode out of the mess hall, glancing over at the hanger Dr. Carter had told him to go to, one of the few surviving and functional hangers.

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Author's Note: How was this chapter? Hope it was something different for you guys, I decided to dwelve a bit into Cage's past. It was interesting talking about earth before the war and during the war, did a bit of research from time to time too. Same as always, if you guys have anything to contribute do remember to write a quick review or drop me a message, I'd see you in the next chapter! :D


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